


Too Young To Be Singing The Blues

by flyinghome21



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of their kid, Sweetness, Tin box, married larry, mentions of Jay's passing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 01:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19780072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyinghome21/pseuds/flyinghome21
Summary: Louis stumbles across a box left for him and he and Harry deal with it together.





	Too Young To Be Singing The Blues

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a Wordplay prompt challenge for the prompt "tin". To read the amazing fics that were written by the others on this prompt, [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tin_tin), and to see all fics written as part of the challenge (including years 1 and 2), [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wordplay_fic_challenge/works). You can also find the masterpost for this year’s challenge [here](https://wordplayfics.tumblr.com/post/185709101043/wordplay-2019-every-week-for-five-weeks-a-prompt).
> 
> As always, love to my group chats!! <3 <3 
> 
> Title taken from "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John.
> 
> This is completely not canon but still deals with the death of Louis' mother (which happened four years prior to the events of the story). I don't go into any detail of it. I hope I dealt with the subject respectfully.
> 
> So without further ado, please enjoy!! :)

It had started out like any Saturday.

Louis woke up to the sounds of his daughter happily babbling through the baby monitor on his bedside table. His husband Harry rolled over, gave him a good morning kiss, and offered to go help their daughter get ready for the day. Louis took a quick shower and then joined his family in the kitchen for breakfast. They ate and chatted and then spent the better part of the morning in their big backyard.

Harry needed to pop out to the shops after lunch and Louis opted to do the dishes and put their daughter down for her afternoon nap. Everything came crashing down, physically and figuratively shortly after he had gotten her off to sleep.

Sometimes when Louis got an idea in his head, he needed to take immediate action. That’s how he found himself in his and Harry’s walk-in closet, stretching up on his tip-toes to reach into a cardboard box of their old things. The thought of his favourite Nike cap from when he was younger had come into his head and now he _needed_ to find it.

“Come on, you little fucker,” he grunted as his hand dug around in the box. “I know you’re in there!”

Louis didn’t notice that his rummaging was causing the box to shift from side to side and he didn’t notice that it was knocking into something else next to it. It was too late for him to react to it falling from the shelf. It hit the carpeted floor with a loud _thunk_ and Louis was grateful that it wasn’t loud enough to wake his sleeping daughter. He looked down to see what had fallen and all of the breath in his lungs left his body.

“Oh God,” he whispered to himself. His legs gave out and he dropped down hard onto his bum. He didn’t know if it had hurt or not.

The tears were streaming down his face before he had a chance to form a proper reaction. He pulled his legs into his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He rocked back and forth slightly without even realizing what he was doing. His bleary eyes were fixed on the medium-sized rectangular tin box in front of him. It had probably once housed biscuits or some sort of sweet. But there weren’t biscuits inside of it anymore.

Louis remained in the same position, rocking himself slowly, for nearly an hour. His lower lip was raw from being held between his teeth. He couldn’t bring himself to move. His eyes never left the box. He hadn’t seen it or thought about it in years. Which meant he never dealt with it properly. He shoved it into the back of his mind just as the physical box had been shoved deep into his closet.

“Lou? Where are you? Oh baby, what’s wrong?”

Suddenly Harry was there, on his knees in front of him. His beautiful green eyes stared into his own and Louis felt completely seen like he always did. The crinkle between Harry’s brows was ever-present. His gaze moved to the box and his face immediately softened in knowing.

“Oh,” he said quietly. “I see.” He reached forward and gently pulled Louis’ lip free from his teeth. He stroked them with delicate fingers. “You found it.” Harry shifted until he was sat next to Louis and he pulled Louis half into his lap and wrapped his arms around him. Louis went willingly.

Louis tried to say something but he couldn’t get the words to form. A pathetic whimper escaped his lips and then he was crying again. He couldn’t stop the tears and he cried silently into Harry’s shoulder as he comfortingly whispered to him and stroked his hair.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a while. “I don’t know why I’m reacting like this.” He sniffled loudly. “It’s been four bloody years, for fuck’s sake.”

“Don’t apologize, Lou.” Harry continued to stroke his hair softly. “It may have been four years. But you also haven’t seen the box in four years. Your reaction is normal.”

“Well, if you’re gonna use logic then I suppose,” Louis mumbled. “But it’s not healthy is it?”

“I—”

“No, Haz, don’t,” Louis cut him off. He lifted his head to look Harry in the eyes. “I knew that hiding it away was only going to make things worse in the long run. So did you. You told me so yourself. But I didn’t want to deal with it so that’s what I did.” He sighed deeply. “And now it came back to bite me.”

“I can put it away,” Harry said. “I’ll make sure it’s somewhere you won’t find it easily.”

“No,” Louis whispered into his chest. He sat up straighter and cleared his throat. “No, don’t. I—I think I need to open it.”

“Are you sure?”

Louis nodded and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his jumper. “I have to. It quite literally fell on me. I think that’s a sign.”

“Careful,” Harry said with a gentle smile. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

“Never.”

Harry chuckled lightly. “Bring it here, then.”

Harry pulled Louis back into him, his back to Harry’s chest, Harry’s legs bracketing him. He wrapped his arms low around Louis’ waist and hooked his chin onto his shoulder. He was the comforting presence and strength Louis needed in that moment. Louis pulled the tin box into his own lap with a sigh.

“Are you sure?” Harry asked again. “You really don’t have to, love.”

“I’m sure,” Louis said. And he was. He felt it deep inside. “I need to. Finally.”

Louis took a deep breath and lifted the lid and set it aside. He didn’t know what to expect but he certainly didn’t expect this.

“‘Marriage survival kit,’” Louis read from the note that was laying on top of the items inside. “‘Louis and Harry, here are a few items I put together that will be of help to you over the years. Since I won’t be there with you—’” Louis paused for a moment. Harry squeezed him and whispered in his ear. He cleared his throat and continued to read. “‘I thought I’d leave you with a few things. I love you both. PS. Harry, I know how stubborn Louis is, good luck.’”

Harry laughed at that and Louis smacked his thigh.

“Oi, shut up, Harold!”

“It’s true!”

“Lies,” Louis said, smacking him again. He put the note aside and began to take the items out of the box. Each had a sticky note. “A handwritten coupon for a free massage. ‘Harry--for when you piss off your husband.’ I deserve all the massages, see.”

“Uh huh. Keep going.”

Louis pulled out the next item. “A mini bottle of whiskey. ‘Louis—for when you piss off your husband. Give this to him.’ Oi, cheers, mum,” he said while Harry laughed, earning himself another smack in the thigh. “Earplugs. ‘For the many children I know you’re going to have. They’ll probably be as loud as Louis.’ Christ! I’m starting to feel attacked, here.”

“You mum knew you,” Harry said with another laugh. “And she was right about us having a kid as loud as you.”

“Fuck off,” Louis replied, no heat behind his words. He continued his exploration of the box. “What’s this notebook? Oh. ‘Some of my best recipes for you and Harry to cook.’”

“Doesn’t she mean just Harry?”

“Do shut up,” Louis said. He pulled out the second to last item. It was in a little material bag. “Oh shit, Haz, it’s her wedding ring. The original. It was her mum’s, I think. ‘For you to pass on to your daughter.’ Fuck.”

“That’s lovely.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Louis replied. He cleared his throat for what felt like the thousandth time. “One last thing.” He pulled out the square plastic case. “A DVD. ‘I recorded a few words for my future grandchildren. Play it for them when they’re older.’ Wow umm—I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch this right now.”

“You don’t have to, love,” Harry said softly. He placed a kiss on the side of Louis’ head. “You did well, I’m proud of you. How do you feel?”

“Good,” Louis said honestly. “I’m not as sad as I thought I’d be. I feel good. Happy, even.”

“I’m glad.”

Louis twisted around so that he was on his knees between Harry’s spread legs, facing him. Harry reached forward and wiped a few stray tears from his face.

“You sure you’re okay?”

Louis nodded and smiled at his husband. His beautiful, wonderful husband who was always there when he needed him. Louis was more than okay.

“I’m fine, thank you, Harry.”

“Always.”

Harry leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. It was comforting; it felt like home. A tiny voice calling out from down the hall made them pull apart.

“I’ll get her,” Harry said. “All right?”

“Definitely.” Louis kissed him once more. “Go on, love. I’ll join you in a second.”

Harry rose to his feet and left the room to attend to their daughter and Louis was left alone with the box once more. He carefully put each item back inside and secured the lid on top of it. Louis looked down at the box before him and it made him do something he hadn’t done before.

He smiled.

***

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, comments and kudos are much appreciated!! :)
> 
> @sunshinetommo28 on Twitter, @sunshinetommo-28 on Tumblr


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